Against Paternalism

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Although I am not a Harvard student I felt that I have to write you and express my opinion. I am a 20-year old woman who is enraged by your recent refusal to print a Playboy ad for models in the Harvard Crimson. I consider your refusal to be absurd, puritanical and sexist.

Whether a woman chooses to pose for Playboy or not should be between her photographer and herself. It is none of your business. Women have the right to decide for themselves what their actions and lifestyles should be. Refusing to run Playboy's ad is denying the women of Harvard free access to information about what choices they have available to them.

Your position is definitely sexist. You are treating Harvard women as though they are children who have to be protected from advertising that you think may be harmful to them--like children being protected from sugared cereal ads. Perhaps some of the radical feminist groups may applaud your action, but many of them have never learned what liberation means. Liberation means that each woman should have the right to decide how she will live her own life, based on all information which should be freely, available to her, and without coercive pressure from others. (And that includes coercive pressure from the feminists.)

I am dismayed to find that a university newspaper is so patriarchal, chauvinistic, and opposed to freedom of information. I think you owe an apology to all your women readers. Caroline Roberts   Providence, R.I.